Dolphins Off To A Strong Start

The crisp rink air greets you upon entering the building, the buzz of excitement from the fans is palpable as they eagerly await the arrival of the Etobicoke Dolphins and the Ottawa Lady Senators. On a cool Sunday afternoon within the walls of the Tony Graham Recreational Complex in Kanata, Ontario, two of the top teams in the OWHL go head to head.

The crowd, decked out in their respective team colours, showed up early and were ready for puck drop. There’s something special about youth hockey, with the way the fans come together to cheer everyone on and the community vibes during the entire game are always remarkable.

A very strong start for the Dolphins in this game, as they scored four goals, including two on the powerplay, to jump out to a 4-0 lead in the first. The Dolphins play such an aggressive style of hockey at both ends and the Lady Sens couldn’t find a way to match that. A perfect example of this is the fact that the Lady Sens were held without a shot on goal for almost the first half of the period.

A goalie change for the Lady Sens to start the second period, as Rioux came in for Garcia and was so solid. Unfortunately for the Lady Sens, this did little to sway the momentum back in their favour, as it was another strong period for the Dolphins. They continued to make it so difficult for the Lady Sens to gain the zone and set anything up, and were effective on keeping them to the outside, resulting in few scoring chances.

In the final frame, it was the Rioux show, as it could have easily been 7-0 Dolphins with the way they were firing on all cylinders. She flashed the leather and was so good laterally and was ready positionally on so many shots. At the end though, it was the Dolphins who prevailed, 5-0, over the Lady Sens, on goals from Riley Sorokan, Rylan Haslam (2), Emma Beauchamp, and Rachel Piggott. Shot clock really told the story best from this game: 39-16 for the Dolphins.

Standouts in this game were Haslam and Piggott for the Dolphins, and Dominique Rioux, along with both Mulvihill sisters, Jordan and Brooke for the Lady Senators. The Dolphins wrapped up the weekend by going 3-0, while the Lady Senators finished 1-1.

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